(Photo Credit: Getty Images) Maria Callas, better known as La Divina and the immortal muse of art, died on September 16, 1977, having lived a life that no-one else could have lived—or, better phrased, survived. Having sung in practically every major house in the world; recorded a enormous quantity of material from Verdi, Puccini, and Bellini, to Wagner, Spontini, Bizet, Rossini, {…}
(Credit: Meigui Zhang Facebook) This week the San Francisco Opera is set to open its 2024-25 season with a production of “Un Ballo in Maschera,” an opera that has not been performed at the company in 10 years. For this new production, the San Francisco Opera has assembled an all-star cast that includes Meigui Zhang, a rising star in the {…}
(Photo Credit: LA Opera/Cory Weaver) Throughout time, many operas have been written which, due to the nature of things, distracts from their quality, instead leaving them behind for other, newer alternatives. However, thanks to opera’s dedicated fanbase, including everyone from laymen to academics to performers and beyond, many operas which didn’t get their fair shot are given new life after {…}
This week the Salzburg Festival opens a new production of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” with an all-star cast that includes some of the best performers of the work. Among them is Kathryn Lewek, who will be taking on the challenge of portraying all four heroines, something that has always been seen as rare and complex. In preparation for the roles, Lewek {…}
This week the Rossini Opera Festival is set to open with a new production of one of the composer’s lesser-known works, “Bianca e Falliero.” The work has been presented at the festival before famously in 1986 and is considered very difficult to sing due to the intensity of its coloratura writing. The new production will include some very important Rossini {…}
(Photo credit: François Matarasso) When you think of opera, one imagines a beautifully finished product, usually disconnected from the labor involved in its creation. But what would happen if the labor to produce opera was just as foregrounded as the result of that labor? This question has been taken up in many forms over the last six to seven decades. {…}
After opening at Montclair State University, Teatro Nuovo is set to bring its 2024 festival to New York City where it will showcase two rarities of the Bel Canto repertoire. One of the operas is well-known in Europe while the other “Anna di Resburgo” by Carolina Uccelli, is unknown to the world. Teatro Nuovo will unearth the work this week {…}
The aftermath of World War One was defined in Europe, quite remarkably, by multiple, simultaneous cultural advances and experiments. These revolutionary developments ranged from classical music shedding its attachment to romantic tendencies and exploring expressionism, through art embracing the surrealist extensions of the mystical, to cinematic developments, and even architectural conflicts between modernism and classicism. In the Germanic world, suffering {…}
This week the Festival Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca is set to open a new production of Bellini’s “Norma” which will be performed in Roger Parker’s Ricordi edition. The version will see two sopranos in the opera, which is close to what Bellini originally intended. Among the artists enlisted for this production is Jacquelyn Wagner. Wagner will make her house {…}
